The present invention relates to card connectors mounted on circuit boards for the purpose of forming electrical connection between a circuit board and a PC or other type of card, especially to card connectors comprising grounding devices intended for the grounding of a portion of the card.
In recent years, cards have become a medium of choice for memory or other applications in notebook PCs, portable terminals and other computer equipment. These units are equipped with card connectors that form electrical connection with memory cards inserted therein. Card connectors are usually arranged and mounted parallel to the circuit boards. Card connectors have multiple electrical contacts that can be electrically connected to conductive pads provided on the cards and be electrically connected to circuitry on circuit boards by soldering or some other method.
Depending on a specific application of the card and card connector, they must be equipped with a grounding structure providing for a ground connection with an outer surface of the card. Such a grounding structure comprises a main ground plate, a spring-loaded tab forming a spring-loaded contact with the ground-connection section located on the outer surface of the card and a connecting device providing for the mounting of the card connector to the circuit board. An example of the card connector of this type can be found in Japanese Utility Model Disclosure No. 2-140779 wherein the grounding structure has a plate secured at an upper surface of a housing. A portion of the plate is stamped and bent to form a spring-loaded tab. A connecting device is provided to form electrical connections between the plate and screws arranged at a back side of the housing, the purpose of which is to secure the housing on the circuit board. However, in many cases such a connecting device is not able to provide sufficient grounding needed for signal transmission, especially in such applications as the PCMCIA standard based card buses where requirements for the grounding are particularly high.
A card connector providing for high quality grounding is described in Japanese Patent Disclosure No. 8-255656. In the card connector disclosed therein, a grounding device comprises multiple tie-ins arranged at a distance from a grounding plate in a row parallel to a contact row. The tie-ins are electrically connected to a circuit board. However, in this card connector, it is difficult to check conditions of the connections of the mounting sections of the contacts intended for surface mounting that after the mounting are located inside the connector, and in the case of a faulty connection, it is difficult to fix the problem.
Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a card connector having a grounding structure providing for an optimum grounding connection that can be easily mounted and problems can be easily fixed.
The present invention is directed to a card connector intended for acceptance of a card that can be mounted on a circuit board comprising electrical contacts that can be joined to signal terminals of the card and connected to the circuit board and a grounding member having a contact section forming electrical connection with an outer surface of the card and a connecting section forming electrical connection with the circuit board and by the fact that a part comprising the connecting section that constitutes at least a part of the grounding member is secured in a detachable manner on a main body of the card connector, thus making it possible to maintain the electrical connections with the circuit board even when the part is removed.